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A Word of Welcome
By Kaufmann | February 12, 2008 No Comments »
The past decade has witnessed a sea change in awareness about governance, including corruption, transparency, democratic voice and participation, violence, and rule of law. Governance and corruption are not seen any longer merely through a moral prism: they are everybody’s business, and they matter for development and global stability. It pertains to both industrialized and developing countries, to multinational and domestic businesses, to elites and common citizens, and to leaders in the public, NGO and private sectors. Governance has also became a serious concern in the aid community, including at the place where I work, the World Bank – where, until the mid-nineties, officially writing about challenges like corruption was a taboo.
Significant progress on governance has since taken place in some countries and institutions, but not in others. Many aid agencies have adopted strategies aiming at integrating good governance and anti-corruption into their programs. Evidence has been gathered, research carried out, reforms implemented, some lessons learnt, while many more remain to be learnt and debated. At the same time, the evidence increasingly points toward a key finding: good governance and anti-corruption matter for development, for growth, equity and fighting poverty, and for peace.
Yet this is only a start. We need to know more whether good governance matters more in some countries and institutions than in others, or whether it mostly matters in the longer term. Or how much, and how does governance influence other drivers of development, such as health and education for all? Which concrete measures are working in improving governance and fighting corruption in particular settings? Why some countries and institutions have improved, others deteriorated, and others just stagnated? The available research and lessons from practical experience need to be shared and debated more widely.
Let me be clear: saying that governance matters enormously for development (a notion which ‘governoskeptics’ are welcomed to challenge and debate here) does not mean that the industrialized world or the aid community are ‘off the hook’. Quite the contrary. The industrialized world plays a key role for influencing governance around the globe, for example, through promoting sounder aid and trade policies, and in increasing transparency in the financial centers that provide a safe haven to assets looted by corrupt officials in other countries. Donor and multilateral aid agencies also have a major responsibility, of course. As is well known, last year at the World Bank we experienced a serious governance challenge that had to be addressed. The example starts at home. Further, all aid agencies, including the World Bank, need to continually strive to ensure that their projects and programs have the highest integrity standards and effectiveness. Existing data and evidence-based policy analysis already sheds some light on some of the challenges that donor countries and aid institutions need to address.
Voice and participation are key dimensions of good governance. What better tool then than a blog, this icon of the 21st century technological revolution, to broaden voice, participation and open debate on governance and anticorruption around the world? This blog is open to all, and it welcomes a wide variety of expertise, views and experiences, with the aim of furthering knowledge and debate on the issues of governance and development. It will try to present new research findings, share data, practical experience, and knowledge from different corners of the world, and at the same time try to elicit debate around unresolved questions. You are all welcome to participate.
Just log in (at the bottom of the site), enter a user name and an email (not password required), and feel free to contribute your thoughts and comments.
Topics: Aid Effectiveness, capture, Corruption, financial crisis, G-20, Measurement Frontiers, Public Financial Management, Public-Private Linkages, Regulation & Security, Rule of Law, Transparency, Voice and Human Rights | | Read and Submit Comments